| Birth: | Feb., 1617
Westerleigh
Gloucestershire, England | | Death: | Nov. 29, 1676
Newport
Newport County
Rhode Island, USA | 
From:Westerly and It's Whitnesses, Page 282
Crandall
Ground (2)...This is found about forty rods west fo the Pound Road, and
west of the Old Crandall house (now the residence of Mr. Charles
Crandall), and without inclosure. None of the fifteen or twenty graves
are lettered. Here lie the remains of John Crandall, 1st, and his two
wives; John Crandall, 2nd, and his wife Anna; Esther, Lewis, Hannah and
Joshua Crandall; Lydia Crandall, lwife of Charles; John Crandall, son of
Charles.
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From: REPRESENTATIVE MEN AND OLD FAMILIES OF RHODE ISLAND
Reverand
John Crandall the first American ancestor of the Crandalls came from
Wales to Boston, Mass in 1634/35. He was a baptist minister and was
among those that were persecuted in the Boston Colony and so fled to
Rhode Island to find the freedom of thought denied them in Mass. He
settled first in Providence in 1637 and later in Westerly, R. I. where
he became the first elder On July 21 , 1651 he and John Clarke and
Obediah Holmes were thrown into prison in Boston for preaching and on
July 31 he was sentenced to pay a pound s or be publicly whipped. He and
his followers were instrumental in the settlement of Westerly but later
he and his family moved to Portsmouth to escape the Indians and there
died in 1676. He was one of the first preachers of the old Seventh Day
Baptist Church. Twice married , his second wife's name was Hannah
Gaylord and his children were John, Jane, Sarah, Peter, Jseph, Samuel
Jeremiah and Eber. From this source came all the early families of the
name in Rhode Island and Conn. as well as those that settled in New
York.
Pg 1115 of same book John Crandall appears at Newport R.I. as early as the year 1651 where he was associated with the
Baptists.
He subsequently became became the first elder of that denomation at
Westerly. He was a freeman in 1655, was commissioner several years 1658 -
1662 inclusive. He had a half a square assigned to him at Westerly in
1661, was deputy in 1667 and again in 1670-71, He died in Newport having
moved there on account of the Indian War.
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From: Elder John Crandall of Rhode Island and His Descendants, by John Cortland Crandall (1949)
JOHN
CRANDALL, Colonial pioneer, First Baptist Elder, Deputy Commissioner,
and statesman of Newport and Westerly, Rhode Island, the head of the
Crandall family in America, was born in Monmouthshire, England, on the
line between England and Wales in 1612. His mother is supposed to have
been a Scotch lady. He came to Boston within a very few years after the
landing of the Pilgrims, in 1634. Several writers have ascertained that
he was associated with the Congregational Church at Salem as 1635 and
that "he was certainly living in Providence as early as 1637" and while
there are many reasons for believing these statements correct and that
John Crandall was a close associate of Roger Williams was one of the
founders of Providence, unfortunately it seems impossible certainly to
confirm them. Many of the original Providence records were early
destroyed.
The first valid documentary account of John Crandall
in New England shows him to have been actively identified with the
Baptist Church in Newport, July 21, 1651. His name next is found, with
that of Matthew West in the Freemen's list of Newport, 1655......
........In
1669 he appears in "a list of the Free Inhabitants of the Town of
Westerle" May the 18, (John Crandall's name headed the list). Directly
after this he, with Tobias Saunders, was authorized by the colony to
summon juries and hold corts, they being appointed "Conservators or His
Majesty's Peace."
John Crandall was one of the original
purchasers from Chief Sosoa of Narragansett of the Misquamicutt tribe,
of the land comprising Westerly, from which Hopkinton was later formed.
The townships of Westerly, Hopkinton, Charleston and Richmond, as they
now are, were a tract called by the Indians Misquamicutt and on August
27, 1661 John Crandall was one of the nine signers of a petition to the
Court of Commissioners for the Colony of Providence Plantations, in
session at Portsmouth, for the purchase of that part of the tract which
became Westerly. His house was near Burdens Pond and a part of it now
stands, as one room in the homestead occupied by lineal descendants, of
the ninth and tenth generations. Across from the house in the old
orchard field is the original cemetery, in which twenty seven bodies are
buried. There are three rows of graves containing nine bodies each.
These rows of graves run parallel with a swamp near by. Elder John is
buried in the row nearest the swamp in the end grave to the left as one
stands facing the swamp. Next to his grave is that of his son John. Each
of the twenty seven graves is indicated by a field stone some 14 inches
in width, appearing four to eight inches above the ground set at the
head while a smaller stone marks the foot of the grave. There is no
inscription on any of the stones. On the 6th day of October 1932 A.
Julian Crandall of Ashaway, Rhode Island and Rev. Wm. S. Crandall of
Binghamton, New York, standing in the little historical burying ground,
agreed that a suitable marker should be placed thereupon. They further
concluded that a large native field granite boulder with a bronze plaque
properly lettered, embedded in the same would be most suitable. The two
third cousins resolved that they would sponsor the project. He was the
first Baptist Elder at Westerly and held a number of public offices at
various times. In 1658, 1659, 1662, 1663 he was a Commissioner, and was a
Deputy to the General Court in 1667, 1670 and 1671, representing
Westerly during the two latter terms.
He had lived prior to his settlement at Westerly, at Newport.........
.........1676,
November 29. Under this date Samuel Hubbard, writes from Newport to Mr.
Edward Stennitt in London, and after speaking of the devastation caused
by King Philip's War, he recounts the recent deaths in the First
Baptist Church: He says: "of the old church, First Mr. Joseph Torrey,
then my dear brother John Crandall, then Mr. John Clarke, then William
Weeden, a deacon, then John Salmon; a sad stroke in very deed, young men
and maids to this day I never knew or heard the like in New England."
Samuel Hubbard also wrote a few years later; "my dear brother John
Crandall of Squamicut, is dead and his first wife a Sabbath keeper, the
first that died in that blessed faith in New England."
His
second wife was Hannah Gaylord, born 30 Jan. 1647, and probably was
daughter of William and Ann (Porter) Gaylord, of Windsor, Connecticut.
The said Hannah married a Crandall as is shown by the settlement of her
brother Hezekiah Gaylord's estate in 1677.
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Family links:
Children:
Sarah Crandall Button (1654 - 1696)*
Samuel Crandel (1662 - 1736)*
Eber Crandall (1676 - 1727)*
Spouses:
Hannah Gaylord Crandall (1646 - 1678)
Mary Opp Crandall (1625 - 1670)*
*Point here for explanation
Note: Original Headstone has been lost over time. | | | Burial:
Old Crandall Cemetery
Westerly
Washington County
Rhode Island, USA |
Created by: J Geoghan
Record added: Feb 16, 2009
Find A Grave Memorial# 33907996 |
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Forget Me Not flowers speak well to the memory of a long remembered early American ancestor of so many in America today.
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Patricia Davis
Added: Nov. 9, 2010 |
In memory
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G-g++granddaughter
Added: Oct. 29, 2010 |
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Tams
Added: Jul. 1, 2009 |
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